Aging tires operating at high speeds under conditions of high vehicle loading and under-inflation may be susceptible to a belt-separation failure. Belt separation involves initiation of a crack at the edge of one of the steel belts which then propagates along a path into the belt skim material between belts which may lead ultimately to separation of all or a large portion of the outer belt and tread from the carcass. In the past, the design of pneumatic tires against belt separation was based on the performance of prototype tires on the test track and under accelerated testing conditions in the laboratory. Such development is extremely costly and time consuming and is prone to error. Often, a design change has an effect on other aspects of tire performance. For example, a change intended to improve resistance to belt separation may be found to adversely affect tire rolling resistance. Because of the type testing involved, the discovery may not be made until the tire design was completed and tested.
It would therefore be desirable to model a tire and predict belt separation and readily determine the effects of various design changes on the belt separation prediction.